Brunei is the easiest entry in Southeast Asia for an American passport, and one of the least written about. The waiver gives 90 days with no application, no fee and no queue, but it covers visiting only, not business.
What Category D1 says
Brunei’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs sorts every country into visa categories. Category D1 is headed “Countries which have Visa Waiver Arrangement with Brunei Darussalam”, and its rule is one sentence:
Foreign nationals of countries under this category do not require any visas to enter Brunei Darussalam and are allowed to stay in the country for up to 90 days.
The same page says nationals in this category do not require a transit visa either.
The ministry’s country index links United States of America, United Kingdom and Canada to the Category D1 page. Our statement about American passports comes from that index. The D1 page itself names no countries.
Australia is linked to a different category page. Assignments are per country and not always intuitive, so follow your own nationality through the index rather than assuming a neighbour’s rule applies to you.
Business needs a visa and a local sponsor
The waiver covers a visit. The ministry’s guidance says a visa application is required for business visits, and the Business Visit Visa has requirements a tourist would not expect:
- A registered business company or government-linked company in Brunei must apply on your behalf. You cannot apply yourself from abroad.
- The application goes to the Visa and Diplomatic Section, Department of Immigration and National Registration.
- Processing takes 3 working days at headquarters and the Kuala Belait branch, and 5 working days at the Temburong branch office. Some applications take longer if they need further assessment.
A Professional Visit Visa, for expertise needed on a specific project, works the same way: a government agency or registered Bruneian company has to apply for you.
If the trip has any commercial purpose, the sponsoring company in Brunei has to start the process before you fly.
Everything a waiver entry may contain sits on the leisure side of that line, and the list of what is on it is short enough to read in full.
Staying longer
A visa application is required “for stay/visit of more than the given visa waiver’s period.” Ninety days is a ceiling, and the border is not the place to negotiate it. If you want to see what a visit consists of first, Brunei’s own tours make a short list.
The per-passport lists are not reproduced here
The ministry publishes its category lists as a long alphabetical index with variations by passport type (China, India and Egypt each have separate rules for ordinary, diplomatic and official passports). A hand-copied version would be wrong somewhere.
Follow your own nationality through the official index, linked at the top of this page. It takes under a minute.
Tours in Brunei, for the visiting the waiver is actually for (affiliate link)